San Francisco Big Game Travel Tips

San Francisco’s streets are total madness this week, so we thought it would be helpful to share a few transportation tips to get around the city. We consulted our traffic guru, David Mayer — Regional West Coast Director at Lyft — and put together a few tidbits to help make travel a little less stressful.

Pickup Locations:

The festivities at Justin Herman Plaza will close down a section of the Embarcadero from January 30th until February 7th. If you’re looking for a pickup area from the Embarcadero BART station, we recommend heading southwest on Market Street past 1st Street. The best pickup locations are Stevenson and 2nd Street, Sutter and Montgomery, or Embarcadero and Folsom.

There will also be closures around the Moscone Center, so we recommend avoiding the area from Mission to Folsom and 3rd to 5th Street. Good places to request a Lyft ride are the north side of 3rd Street, 5th and Mission, or 5th and Folsom.

Busiest Travel Times:

The Embarcadero and Moscone Center will be busy every day from 8 AM to 10 PM, so we recommend avoiding these areas as much as possible. If you are heading to work near these locations, you should give yourself plenty of time and be prepared to walk the last block or two.

Nighttime concerts will take place at Pier 70 in the Dogpatch from February 4th through the 6th, so the surrounding area will be very congested between 5 PM and 12 AM.

Detour Routes:

Due to the closures mentioned above, the city has outlined a few detour routes to direct traffic. Embarcadero traffic will be diverted to Washington Street then from Battery to 1st Street. This will be particularly useful if you are heading to the Bay Bridge.

The very best advice we can give is to request early and avoid pickups near any major downtown festivities whenever you can. There are so many awesome events happening right in our backyard, but the reality is it may take a bit longer to get around, so give yourself plenty of time to get from A to B. Lyft drivers are well-informed of all road closures and will do their best to get you where you need to go in the safest and most efficient way.